For the sake of contributing information to the blog, here are the (pretty much) final results out of the Granite State:
CANDIDATE VOTE TOTAL PERCENT WINNER
Kerry (Dem) 82594 39% WIN
Dean (Dem) 56353 26%
Clark (Dem) 26554 12%
Edwards (Dem) 25849 12%
Lieberman (Dem) 18392 9%
Kucinich (Dem) 3015 2%
97% of precincts reporting.
If Dean is to preserve his viability, he must make a show somewhere on 2/3, and move on to the winnable states the following week, it seems to me.
More seasoned political hands than myself will know whether or not Kerry can expect an influx of funds to ensure continued competitiveness from this point onward- I would assume that this will be the case.
Edwards is quite well positioned; Clark a little less so. Clarkies must be wondering what the difference might be had Wes decided to contest Iowa- this may be remembered as one of the pivotal decisions of the campaign.
For my part, the shortfalls of my candidate have inspired me to work harder for him. Even if he does not prevail, he will continue to drive the debate within the party, and that will be good enough.
Dean will put his cards down in the SW (AZ & NM), and maybe Missouri. Token showing in SC. methinks. Edwards will be the flavor of the week unless he does something stupid. We will now see how well Wesley Clark can campaign. Ditto, really, for Kerry.
High turnouts are one of the big stories so far which won't be widely reported, nor will the fact that 10% of the REPUBLICAN voters in NH voted for Democratic candidates, while almost no such protest votes were cast on the Dem side (Bush got 112 write-ins from Dems).
I'm exhausted after this day, and my thoughts are significantly "less than lucid," as my posting probably shows. Apologies all around.
Best to all,
oregon guy